Be honest, how does it feel to be super prestigious?

A lot of people are in IB for the prestige and the money. As a college student, I've always wondered - for someone in a top job (i.e. MD, C-Suite, wealthy independent investor, etc) who is drowning in money, how does it feel walking around daily life? Like, do you walk into a bar feeling confident and arrogant, do you walk in a restaurant and immediately assume you are better than everyone else? Or do you just feel like a regular dude?

 
Sunshine Funshine:
PM me? Very impressive

?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I know a few guys that have broken off larger firms in their later years and started a very hyper focused "niche" firm on the M&A side.

In PE I know 3 - 4 entrepreneurs that sold companies and started up a VC/PE firm. It's not really rocket science if you stick to your core skill set and what you know best. Our deals are all pretty small because it's the capital from my partner(s) and I, then sometimes outside investors if we feel they add value and we'd enjoy having them onboard so bidding on deals isn't very competitive purely due to smaller deal size.

The nice thing too about small deals is that you're not competing against anyone too bright because all the smart PE/VC guys are at big funds that would never touch a company with $2M in EBITDA. Occasionally you'll run into a search fund guy but they rarely have as much hard experience starting/scaling and selling a company. The really shitty thing about these deals though is that there aren't very many layers between the frontline and management which means you have to get your hands filthy. IE literally moving to bumfuck nowhere next month to run a portco until we can scale and hire management; will be stuck managing $12/h production employees. That part isn't fun but its' 2 - 6 months tops and then I can GTFO back to civilization hopefully or just lose all my money IDK.

 

Serious take on this, I've been quite blown away by the humbleness of top level execs in the HF/PE space... Also met a couple BB IB MDs and Club Managers, they were ultra humble too

I think arrogance is best displayed by the guys who work lower level jobs at shit firms.

Whereas --- someone running a decently successful HF knows who they are and don't need to be in your face about it

thots & prayers
 

These sort of questions always seem to go back to self worth for me and what you value. If your entire identity is wrapped in your job and your killing it, you da man, and nobody can tell you otherwise. If your identify isn't wrapped up entirely in your job and the other stuff in your life isn't going your way then the prestige of that job won't pay the self-esteem bill.

 

It comes up in conversations with my partners. Will (future tense) money change you? Can you handle a $1,000,000 paycheck?

My observation, money changes most people.

Have compassion as well as ambition and you’ll go far in life. Check out my blog at MemoryVideo.com
 
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I think that a status boost gives people a sense of confidence compared to their peers. But it's temporary, because it also changes who they perceive to be their peers. So someone who gets into a "target" college feels great about it, but then he goes to the college and his peers become the other students there, not his old high school classmates he left behind. So he is back to square one in the status hierarchy game, except when he goes back home for Christmas break.

That cycle can repeat with every rung he climbs on the status ladder. Eventually he could be a billionaire but still be consumed with frustration that some asshole he knows is 50 places higher than he is on the Forbes 400, and has a nicer Ivy League building named after him. He has moved stratospherically beyond his high school classmates. But he no longer sees them or cares about them, so his higher status doesn't make him feel good, just like posters here don't get a surge of pride from the thought that they're richer than someone from the Congo.

 

Damn good post! I think everyone should reflect on how far they've come every once in a while especially in competitive industries like finance where it's easy to fall prey to this line of thinking

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Controversial

If you live in a small town $200K might sound like royalty. But when you live in a big city like NYC, "SF", LA, Chicago, etc., even a 7 figure salary feels like "middle class." Wealthy would be $10-20MM/yr in interest and dividend income, while "rich" would be $100MM+/yr.

So no, no major sense of catharsis for me. I'll be hustling for a while.

Just a quick add-on: yes it's great to live a good life and I'm aware of my privilege. But I think it's important to be aware that prestige and money don't necessarily go hand in hand. They do up to a certain point, but I'd argue that the Prince of Monaco ($1B) is not half as prestigious as Howard Schultz ($2-3B). Prestige is more about the person, while wealth is more about the money. Somewhat correlated but not linearly.

 
even a 7 figure salary feels like "middle class." Wealthy would be $10-20MM/yr in interest and dividend income, while "rich" would be $100MM+/yr.

There is no way on earth that seven figures is "middle class". realistically the upper bound for UMC in those cities is $400-450k. After that point, no reasonable individual can argue that you're anywhere near "middle" class.

This viewpoint about wealth seems extraordinarily tone deaf considering how many people live in these places on legitimate middle class or working class incomes.

 

Take risks when you’re younger by buying lots of equity in high growth assets. As you get older, ideally the balance of your assets approaches around $3MM, which is around the size of an asset base you would need to generate a perpetual $100K income that can potentially grow a little with inflation at current yields.

Now this is not really likely, unfortunately, and it wouldn’t be your fault. It would require substantial luck on your part if you make 50-80K a year to do this. It’s fairly reasonable on incomes of 150-200K. Your savings rate is a function of your income, and the value of your investment balance (realistically) should grow at some long term equity growth rate (say 9% a year). If you run the numbers, the probability of you hitting your target balance should inform you on how much luck you’ll need.

 

"Rich" is considered 100mm in dividend/interest income? Lol. Maybe your "circles" are much more elite than ours. Even in a city like LA, there's hardly 200 people (very generous estimate) who would qualify as "rich" by your standards; they would require a net worth of at least 1 bill to claim that much in dividend/interest income.

 

And yet you acknowledge that they exist. Knowing that, would you still dare to claim “wealth” with a net worth of only $5MM? Probably not— you realistically wouldn’t feel comfortable with calling yourself rich until you hit $150-300MM in net worth in a big city.

By the way, this is also what explains DJT’s massive chip on his shoulder. He always brags about how rich he is, but he knows that there are people with net worths that make him look poor and aren’t afraid to remind him of that fact.

 

Most of my clients have this quiet confidence that oozes out of them. It’s not pretentious at all, you can just tell they don’t walk around trying to prove anything to anyone.

In addition they are never in a hurry or rushed. They are fully present in conversation, not looking at their phones, and engaging fully in the present.

YMMV

"Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money." - Mickey Bergman - Heist (2001)
 

Prestige is relative.

My experience is that it's usually only other upper white-collar professionals that will give two shits about whether you're a banker, consultant, or similar. Literally no one in the real world cares about your banking profession.

Now, if you tell them that you're a artist, athlete, actor, entrepreneur - and some professional jobs like medical doctor, vet - they will go "Ohh, that's so cool - tell me more about it".

Sure, bankers make good money and have great career opportunities, but if you're going into it for the bragging rights, then you're gonna be sorely disappointed (tip: Don't go into it for the preftige). If you tell regular people that you work in banking, you might as follow up with telling them that your favorite hobby is watching paint dry.

 

It's all relative to the social groups you surround yourself with. Few things in the world feel better than watching that person who wanted to surpass you grit his/her teeth as you talk about achieving their very desires (think Vegeta, Sasuke, or Hillary Clinton HAH)

Around my friends, I present myself very comfortably...almost too comfortably to the point that I seem aloof and silly. It's honestly kind of funny when they admit to me "how the fuck are you a functioning self-sustaining person? Let alone someone with a well-respected job?"

Created a 1-step skincare solution for men. Purchase + reviews appreciated: www.w34th.com
 

Children, children, children (apologize for being condescending but the tone of the thread deserves it) - the faster you learn it not about the money, the better. I too once was a young buck, doing well, money motivated, thought I'd retire at 40 (whatever that means), etc. Eventually you'll learn that it's about the work, not the money. Enjoy what you do, be really good at it and the money follows. Not the other way around.

When money is your only motivation, you simply lack the rocket fuel to progress, because eventually you have enough, or lower your standards to get by, and you don't push forward. That's called life.

Back to the OP's question. Although it's quite relative and subjective, being a leader, top of the food chain, whatever in your endeavor provides a quiet confidence that you know what you're doing and the money that follows removes stress from your life. Doesn't need to be 8 figures or 7 figures. Just needs to remove stress from your life as having money solves problems that not having money creates. You're never going to spend it all anyway.

Totally normal to want a lavish lifetstyle when you're just starting out. Your idea of lavish will change as you mature. Once I was able to buy those things I stopped wanting them.

 

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